Washed Out - Eyes Be Closed
I haven’t done the requisite research to support this, but in a reflective moment the other night I wondered if my generation, the ambiguous 20-somethings, might be the first generation to actually prefer the way things were as we were growing up. Hardly the greatest generation, historians will refer to us as Generation N. The “N”, of course, for nostalgia. That feeling of vague familiarity which so many generations past rejected to create their own unique vision of the world, embraced whole-sale by us, the non-rebels. Through this unfortunate lens then, “chillwave” becomes our generational soundtrack, music tinged with a reverence for the ineffable quality of times gone past.
Washed Out, the project of South Carolinian Ernest Greene, was initially saddled with the chillwave designation. And not entirely inappropriately, his Life of Leisure EP definitely recalled those familiar feelings. However, if “Eyes Be Closed” is indicative of the rest of his new album then we should become increasingly hesitant to cast Greene off as just-another-chillwaver. The climactic refrain right before the break, “see the world clearly now”, followed by a refreshing cascade of percussion, seems to indicate that he has shed his hazy affection for the past and is looking confidently into the future with clear-eyes. A welcome evolution in his project and possibly a missive of hope, that sooner or later the rest of us will follow suit.
Within and Without, Washed Out’s first proper LP, will be released on July 12th by Subpop and will feature the previously loved track “You and I”. The album was produced by Ben Allen, who also shares credits on Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion and Deerhunter’s Halycon Digest.
